BAXTER'S FAREWELL SERMON. 501 Quest. 1. Tell me, then, who it is that you suffer by ; that bath the.principal disposing hand in all ? .Is it one that you can rea- sonably suspect of any want of power,' wisdom, or goodness? Is he no much fitter to dispose of you than you or any mortals are ? lithe physician be better than the patient, to determine how he shall be ordered, and if you are fitter than your infant child, and if you are fitter than your beast, to determine of his pasture, work, and usage, sure, then, you will grant, that God is much more fit than we. A!nd if he would give you your choice and say, ' It shall go with thee, all thv days, for prosperity or adversity, life or death, as thou wilt thyself, or, as thy dearest friend will ;' you should say, 'Nay, Lord, but let it be as thou wilt; for I andmy friend are fool- ish and partial, and know not what is best for ourselves. Not our wills, but thy will be done.' Quest. 2. Do you not see that carnal pleasure is far more dan- gerous than all your sorrows? Look on the ungodly that prosper in the world, and tell me whether you would be in their condition. Ifnot, why do you long for their temptations ; and to live in that air whose corruption causeth such epidemical mortalities? If you would not, with the rich man, (Luke xvi.) be damned for sensuali- ty, nor with the fool, (Luke xii. 19,20.) say, Soul, take thy ease, &c. when your souls are presently to be taken from you ; or with him, (Luke xviii. 22, 23.) go away sorrowful from Christ ; desire not the temptations which brought theirs to it. Ifyou would not oppressthe people of God With Pharaoh, nor persecute the proph- ets with Ahab and Jezebel, nor resist the gospel,and persecute the preachers of it, with the Scribes and Pharisees ; (2.Thess. xiv. 15, 16.) desire not the temptationswhich led them to all this. Quest 3. Would not yod follow your Savior, and rather be conformed to him and to his saints, than to the wicked that have their portion in this life ? I doubt you do not well study the life and suffetingsof, Christ, and the reason of them, when you find yourselves so little concerned in them, and so desirous of another way. And would yourof go to heaven in the common way that the saints of old have gone before you in ? Read the Scripture and all , churçh history, and observe which is the beaten path of life; and whether even among believers, and the pastors of the church, it was the persecuted or the prosperous that most honored their profession, and which of them itwas that corrdpted the church with pride and domination, and kindled in it those flames of conten- tion which are consuming it to this day; and sowed those seeds of divisions whose sour fruit have set their children's teeth on edge. Mark whether it was the suffering or the prospering part that bath had the greatest hand in her after-sufferings. Quest. 4. What saith your own experience, and how bath God
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